RM - Ch. 3

Which of the following is true of operational definitions? A) Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others. B) Some psychological concepts cannot be operationally defined. C) Operational definitions answer the question, "Why did the researchers measure this variable?" D) Conceptual definition and operational definition mean the same thing.

A) Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others.

Which of the following is true of variables? A) Some variables can be either manipulated or measured. B) Variables are the same as constants. C) Variables only need conceptual definitions. D) All variables can be manipulated.

A) Some variables can be either manipulated or measured.

A common finding in the study of aggression is that exposure to television is associated with increased aggressive behavior in children. You know this relationship may not be causal because you are not sure which occurred first: watching television or being aggressive. You are questioning which of the following rules of causation? A) the criterion of temporal precedence B) the criterion of external validity C) the criterion of covariance D) the third-variable criterion

A) the criterion of temporal precedence

Which of the following phrases would NOT indicate that a researcher is making a causal claim? A) "curbs" B) "is at higher risk of" C) "seems to decrease" D) "suggests a change"

B) "is at higher risk of"

You read a news article titled, "New Drug Reduces OCD Symptoms in Mice" about a recent scientific study. To evaluate whether the title's claim is supported, you should do which of the following? A) Ask yourself whether the implication makes intuitive sense. B) Check whether the authors established the three criteria for a causal claim. C) Research the frequency of OCD in mice. D) Ensure that the authors operationally define OCD.

B) Check whether the authors established the three criteria for a causal claim.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Based on this study, Dr. Kang can make which of the following claims? A) Fifteen percent of emotional words are remembered. B) Distraction is associated with worse memory. C) Group A has better memory than Group B. D) Emotion enhances memory.

D) Emotion enhances memory.

The absence of random assignment in any study A) strengthens your ability to make a causal claim B) decreases internal validity C) strengthens your ability to make a frequency claim D) increases internal validity

B) decreases internal validity

Science journalists have argued that cigarette smoking leads to a variety of health problems. What type of claim are they making? A) frequency B) operational C) causal D) association

C) causal

RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. In this study, the researchers recorded how many errors participants committed. This is an example of which of the following? A) a variable's level B) a constant C) a manipulated variable D) a measured variable

D) a measured variable

_______________ validity tends to be higher in experiments than in other types of studies. A) internal B) content C) external D) statistical

A) internal

Dr. Ellison finds a relation between amount of sleep and problem solving. Specifically, having a higher amount of sleep the night before an exam is associated with higher scores on two measures of problem solving. This is an example of which type of association? A) positive association B) causal association C) zero association D) negative association

A) positive association

RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and he sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. In this study, the authors were interested in participants' board game performance. Which of the following would be a reasonable operational definition of performance? A) whether participants won against a partner B) which board game participants chose to play C) an earnest attempt to finish quickly D) performance when playing a board game

A) whether participants won against a partner

Which of the following is a causal claim? A) Teens spend too much time texting and driving. B) Texting interferes with a driver's ability to pay attention. C) Texting while driving is associated with poor impulse control. D) Most drivers have reported texting while driving.

B) Texting interferes with a driver's ability to pay attention.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which type of claim is Dr. Ramon making? A) frequency claim B) causal claim C) association claim D) statistical claim

B) causal claim

RESEARCH STUDY 3.5: Jenny reads the following headline on an online article: "If You're Sexist, People Will Think You're Racist, and Vice Versa." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Sanchez and colleagues, 2017.) This study found that members of stigmatized groups are threatened by prejudice directed at other stigmatized groups. Their results showed that White women can feel threatened by racism, men of color feel threatened by sexism, and that these perceptions made participants expect unfair treatment. In this study, the article's headline is ___________ because ___________. A) justified; this is a causal claim B) justified; this is an association claim C) unjustified; this is an experiment D) unjustified; this is a correlational study

B) justified; this is an association claim

What is a confidence interval constructed around? A) the point estimate B) the margin of error C) the population parameter D) the correlation coefficient

B) the margin of error

RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which of the following statements is true of Dr. Ramon's and Dr. LaSalle's claims? A) Dr. LaSalle's claim makes a stronger statement than Dr. Ramon's claim. B) Dr. LaSalle's claim is the same as Dr. Ramon's claim. C) Dr. Ramon's claim makes a stronger statement than Dr. LaSalle's claim. D) Dr. Ramon's claim involves more variables than Dr. LaSalle's claim.

C) Dr. Ramon's claim makes a stronger statement than Dr. LaSalle's claim.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. Which of the following is a variable in this study? A) the type of game B) the volume of the music C) the gender of the researcher D) the gender of the participant

D) the gender of the participant

RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish is also curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem. Could you predict one from the other?" Why should Anton NOT interrogate the internal validity of the study? A) because he has not taken statistics yet B) because he is a student, not a researcher C) because the study's claim is an association claim D) because the author of the study already did

C) because the study's claim is an association claim

RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really say for sure that being bullied leads to low self-esteem because they didn't measure being bullied before they measured self-esteem." Clarissa is concerned that the researcher A) concluded there was not a relationship, but there really is one B) concluded there was a relationship, but there really isn't one C) failed to establish temporal precedence D) failed to consider a third variable

C) failed to establish temporal precedence

RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish is also curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem. Could you predict one from the other?" Clarissa's concern is addressing which of the following? A) the study's construct validity B) the study's internal validity C) the study's statistical validity D) the study's external validity

A) the study's construct validity

RESEARCH STUDY 3.5: Jenny reads the following headline on an online article: "If You're Sexist, People Will Think You're Racist, and Vice Versa." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Sanchez and colleagues, 2017.) This study found that members of stigmatized groups are threatened by prejudice directed at other stigmatized groups. Their results showed that White women can feel threatened by racism, men of color feel threatened by sexism, and that these perceptions made participants expect unfair treatment. The results of this study can be generalized to which of the following groups? A) white women and men of color B) women of color C) all underrepresented groups D) individuals receiving unfair treatment

A) white women and men of color

RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Which of the following makes Dr. Kang's study an experiment? A) The study was conducted at a university by a psychologist. B) The study included a distractor task. C) The study investigated a theory of emotion on memory. D) The study included a manipulated variable and a measured variable.

D) The study included a manipulated variable and a measured variable.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Dr. Kang's decision to assign participants randomly to Group A and Group B increases which of the following? A) the temporal precedence of the study B) the covariance of the study C) the external validity of the study D) the internal validity of the study

D) the internal validity of the study

RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Which of the following is the dependent variable in Dr. Kang's study? A) the length of the distractor task B) the number of words on the list C) the content of the words D) the number of words remembered

D) the number of words remembered